The first hate letter came last spring. Since then, a total of three threats have arrived at SUNY Potsdam, singling out a professor, then adding in other minorities and the LGBT community.
Those notes sparked deep concern at the college. Students and faculty said it was a hard fall semester, filled with fear and stress, and questions about diversity and fairness on campus. There are signs of progress. But there’s also a need for some kind of reset before the conversation resumes in January.
On the last day of class before final exams at SUNY Potsdam, Kevin Agyakwa looked exhausted. Besides studying, Agyakwa was fielding calls for Potsdam’s Oppressed Working Every Resource — or P.O.W.E.R.
P.O.W.E.R. was formed this semester, made up of a few dozen students from around campus. Many of them are upperclassmen, including Agyakwa.
He said there were problems at SUNY Potsdam long before the hate letters started to turn up that targeted professor John Youngblood. The freshman class at SUNY Potsdam has grown increasingly diverse, but some black students felt like they weren’t getting fair treatment in the college disciplinary process. In the classroom, less than 10 percent of professors were people of color. Agyakwa and other students said there has been name-calling on the street, in the village, and in the dorms.
“I know that the administration is working really hard to make this campus as safe as possible,” Agyakwa said. “but we as students felt it wasn’t enough and we decided to come up with tangible changes that we would like to see implemented within the campus.”
P.O.W.E.R. demanded that the number of black staff members at SUNY Potsdam increase by 10 percent. They asked for a strategic plan for diversity across campus, and they said that the school needs to hire more mental health counselors of color.
When a full list of demands arrived, SUNY Potsdam president Kristin Esterberg said she was impressed. Esterberg wrote a book about what it takes to improve college campuses before she took office.
“Change is hard,” Esterberg said. “We are not nimble institutions.”
Esterberg said SUNY Potsdam has been reviewing its code of conduct for students, and they are writing a diversity plan. But that wasn’t clear to P.O.W.E.R. until the group met up with Esterberg to hear how their demands would be addressed. Agyakwa said it felt like a win. But it goes to show that communication hasn’t been great between students and administrators.
Esterberg said she’s trying to figure out what needs to change in the short term and the longer term.
“What do we do now, this year, next year, and then how are we preparing a pipeline of students who can come back not only to SUNY Potsdam but to other campuses as faculty members and as professional staff?”
That’s where things get complicated. P.O.W.E.R. demanded that two staff members be fired, dean of students Chip Morris and director of student conduct Annette Robbins, neither of whom are talking to the media. Esterberg said she can’t discuss personnel.
Statistics professor Jim Terhune has been teaching at SUNY Potsdam since 1973. Terhune, who is white, said his classes have grown more and more diverse over the years. He describes it as a positive change but he said he and other instructors have been feeling anxious, afraid to say the wrong thing, or appear unsupportive towards students.
“If people think that they’re not safe here, then they truly feel they’re not safe,” Terhune said, "and something has to be done about it. That’s it.”
Terhune said he asked his colleagues point-blank what he needed to do as the campus was racked by hate mail, protests, and sit-ins. He said he never received any answers.
Other faculty members have decided the best move is to listen carefully to what students are saying. Professor Christine Doran hosted a small party for the Women and Gender Studies Department at the end of the term.
Freshman Britney Velez said the “death threats” motivated her to join P.O.W.E.R.’s protests. Word got back to Velez’s mother in Manhattan. There were phone calls to administrators and questions about whether the campus was safe.
“It’s getting better,” Velez said. “That’s what I can tell my mother. I feel happy that I can say it’s getting better.”
The chief diversity officer for SUNY has pledged to check on that next year. Carlos Medina, who came to Potsdam just a few weeks ago to speak with students, said he will visit again come January.
